They are clean, fast and exciting. But will electric cars sell in large numbers?

Nissan, General Motors, Ford and a host of start-ups like Tesla Motors, BYD and Fisker Automotive have placed a multibillion dollar bet that a growing number of consumers want to buy cars that run wholly or in part on batteries. If it works, electric cars could literally rewrite the political and economic destinies of nations.

The challenges? Batteries are expensive, electric cars can’t go nearly as far on a charge as they can on a tankful of liquid fuel and recharging a car can take hours.